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I would implement STEM in my everyday classroom activites. One way I'd implement STEM would be to ask my students to just check the weather each day before they come to class. I'd want them to examine the differences in the sky depending on the weather that day. Another way STEM could be used everyday is having the students explore and do investigations on different activites making them little scientists. I only listed a few but there are many ways STEM can be incorprated in a classroom.

Thank Destini for sharing! I definitely agree with you and that is such a great idea on how you can implement STEM in your classroom. Students can investigate how the weather is by just looking up to the sky. There are many other ideas that you can do. I am currently a student teacher and my mentor teacher takes the kids to our garden that is on our campus and have the kids explore. 

Thank you, 

Karla Ayala 

University of Houston  

I also love the idea of using STEM in everyday classroom activities. My favorite part of your weather example is that it will get students to see the connections between STEM and the real world! I have noticed that when children are able to see that what they are doing is meaningful in real life, they are more likely to get excited about it and feel important. Last week, in a fourth grade classroom, we did a STEM activity everyday as the year winds down. My favorite activity we did was building everyday objects out of just paper and tape. Students were asked to build a scoop (that actually scoops macoroni noodles), a hat (that actually fits on someone's head), a house (that actually stands and has a chimney), and a boat (that actually can float in water). The kids LOVED these STEM activities. You can just see their gears turning when they are all talking and planning and building. I believe that STEM is where students get to really show of their creativity and engineering sides. 

Implementing STEM into our classrooms is a wonderful idea.  It allows the students to combine the subjects of science, technology, mathmatics, and engineering and learn them altogther, rather than separately.  It also allows students to take a hands-on approach to learning by providing them with a question and a problem.  Students must try different things to solve the problem and come to a creative solution.  For example, when I was in school I can remember completing a STEM activity where my goal was to build a boat, out of the provided materials, that could float as well as hold a certain amount of pennies.  My group had to figure out what the shape of the boat should be, what materials we should use and how we were going to hold all that weight in one small boat.  Because there was an actual problem I had to solve, and a hook from the start of what I was required to do, I was very interested in this project and was enthusiastic about building and testing many methods that could hold not only the required amount of pennies, but even more!  I have found that when you put something right in front of a student, and it somehow relates to their life, they become more interested and excited to learn about the topic.  I beleive this is one of the main goals of STEM, to get students excited about learning.   I beleive STEM is also meant to implement many subjects in your lesson, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as allow your students to show their creativity and imagination.  They can use their brains to test different ideas in a hands-on approach. 

I also believe that implementing STEM into our everyday classrooms is extrememly important. It saddens me when working with a group of students and asking them if they know what STEM is and majority of the time they answer no. Students should know what STEM stands for the the four C's that go along with STEM activites. When completing STEM activites it takes commuication, collabortation, creativity, and critical thinking. Each of those things are aspects that students should be using on a day to day basis. The ideas and concepts that STEM activities present are the related to real world jobs and skills that students will need in order to succeed in daily life. Students learn by hands-on activities, espically if they are able to relate the concepts back to their own lives and make a connection. When I did 75 observation hours in a 5th grade classroom, Honda Engineers came in to work with the students to create Jet Toy cars. They made it intriguiging for the students because they constantly related it back to the work force as well as the scientific steps it takes to create a car. These students were in total awe throughout this whole process because the engineers made it a real world experience. Things like STEM is what students are going to remember most and carry on with them throughout their years of school so educators should take advantage of this opportunity and use it as much as possible! 

Implementing STEM into our everyday classrooms is absolutely important. Most student are unaware of what STEM even is and I believe that should be a commonly used acronym in the classroom. The four C’s should also be common words used in the classroom, since they are vital to effective STEM learning. The four C’s are communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. STEM is very applicable to everyday life and this is why we should be using STEM in our classroom. STEM is authentic and hands-on; students are able to grapple with problems and apply their learning to their everyday life. 

I am currently a pre-service, elementary education student at Wartburg College. All of these comments and responses to implementing STEM into the classroom every day through simple activities were so awesome to learn about. For me, I think STEM is more than a subject we teach in school, but that it applies to all areas in our lives! Getting students to think about the world around them with hands-on activities that makes them curious to explore more is key. Checking the weather daily, building a classroom garden, and building everyday objects with simple household items were just some ideas that caught my eye that I would use in my future classroom. An activity that I remember doing in elementary school was choosing any country in the world. We were then instructed to build a house that looked similar to one you would find in that country with household items. Once that part was completed, we had to research different facts/topics like the climate, animals that live there, food or livestock raised, population, and so much more to create a presentation or report about that country. This project incorporated all the subjects of STEM and more, making it a cross-curricular project. I think as educators, we need to find projects or units that spark students’ creativity and make science fun, rather than it seems boring or hard. STEM is all around us, and we must teach that mindset to our students.

I am currently a pre-service teaching gearing up to have my own classroom someday. As I am learning more and more about STEM each day, I am finding it very interesting to see what ideas some of you guys are bringing to the classroom. STEM is critical and it is not something children will just be surrounded by during their path of learning but will continue to be around them throughout their whole life. The first step to gearing students towards STEM is trying to help them develop an interest. An idea I liked that was pulled from above is allowing kids to make their own inventions. Things like a hat, sailboat, their own house, etc. Doing fun, hands-on activities like these will get them interested in STEM and have their minds geared towards what STEM is really all about. An activity and lesson that I have had some experience on in the classroom are with Sphero Balls. If you have not heard if these, they are small robots that can be operated through coding done on an Ipad. Throughout this lesson with the Sphero balls, I noticed that students' interest in it was amazing. They took time to understand what they needed to do and once they had the chance to perform there little brains were locked in and wanting to achieve the lesson's goal. I questioned a lot of the time during this activity, 'why is it so important for students to learn to codel?' As I did some research, I found that coding is a basic literacy in our digital age. This is what our technology has come to and it's essential for children to know how to do and work the technology around them. Coding involves and teaches students more about math, communication, creativity, problem-solving, writing, and confidence. It seems like a hard activity to conquer as a teacher but look into it. Students might already know a few things about it and be able to teach us teachers about it. :) STEM is important and we as teachers need to keep incorporating it into our curriculum and teach our students all about it.   

I am currently in the process of student teaching and I love the idea of bringing STEM into our classrooms. I really liked Destini’s idea of asking her students to check the weather and observe the sky before each class day. I think this helps students to be more aware of our Earth and environment. It can also help them to think and feel like scientist, which is always important.

Hi, 

I also think implementing STEM in the classroom is an excellent idea. I would do this by posting a STEM experiment for the students to conduct each week. They will then record all their data in their science notebook, and I will also connect STEM experiments to other content areas. Then, the students can strengthen their other knowledge as well, not just their science knowledge 

Implementing STEM in the classroom is easier than we think, I've seen my daughters pre-k 4 teacher do it by asking the weather everyday. She would have the students go to their window and describe how it looks outside. Is it sunny, raining, cloudy, this is an easy way to implement stem in the classroom. Another fun way to implement STEM in the classroom would be by having them build equiptment to play a game like hockey of golf using recycled material. This is something that you can do in the lower elementary grades to build the students engineering skills. It sounds hard but it's easier than we think.

Implementing STEM in a classroom is important to a student’s education. As a teacher, we want to provide them with as many resources as we can to fuel their minds with new knowledge.  Children are always curious and want to know the why or how something works. Through implementing stem in a classroom we are providing them with the tools for exploration. The learning is put into the students hands and they take control of their learning. In my classroom, I would implement STEM through STEM buckets. I am a pre service teacher and I am currently observing STEM being used in a 1st grade classroom. This is an idea that I have taken from my mentor teacher. She has what she calls STEM buckets each bucket has something different for the student to play with and create. The students use this during free time or when she says brain break. The stem buckets are something that not only relives stress throughout the day but also it gets the students minds working. They are engaged and taking part in something, that interests them.  They tend to share with her or others what they found or created and just seeing their faces light up from enjoying these buckets is an amazing sight to see.

 I think the implementation of STEM in the classroom is essential for learners of all ages. Keeping students' minds wondering and curious about possible solutions helps them stay in the mind frame of what I can enhance to become more efficient and beneficial to society is critical, as the world around us is changing every day. I would implement STEM in my classroom by posing everyday problems to my students and have them brainstorm possible solutions. To make this more interesting, I would create group projects where the teacher has pre-picked problems, and students must find possible solutions. This would be presented to the class or possibly a science prep-rally. I think students would enjoy this activity, and it would enhance their critical thinking skills. 

These are some great ideas on implementing STEM in the classroom. I think the weather idea is great! It is something simple that could be a quick talk to start every class. I also like the idea of having them be little scientists everday. I read an article not too long ago about how students want to remeber the fun parts of school. One man talked about how he never forgot science class because each day he felt like he was thinking like a scientist! 

I think incorporating robotics is a great way to have STEM in a classroom. Robotics is a way to let students show knowledge in a critical thinking setting; group work would be fantastic with this! This would pertain to upper elmentary.